New Delhi: Former Rajya Sabha MP and columnist Swapan Dasgupta, who won the Rashbehari Assembly seat in West Bengal by more than 20,500 votes, will be the Finance Minister of West Bengal in the Suvendu Adhikari-led Cabinet, as announced in the allocation of portfolios on Wednesday.
All the 41 ministers in the West Bengal government, including the 35 who were sworn in on 1 June, have now been allocated portfolios. The portfolios of six ministers, including CM Adhikari who took oath of office on 9 May, have also been reassigned.
Besides Home, CM Adhikari will also handle the departments of land and land reforms, power, information and cultural affairs and personnel and administrative reforms.
Nishith Pramanik, a former minister in the Modi Cabinet who won from North Bengal’s Mathabhanga, has been allocated Water Resources Investigation and Development, besides the North Bengal Development assigned to him earlier.
Agnimitra Paul, one of the seven women ministers in the Adhikari cabinet, will now be handling only Urban Development and Municipal Affairs. She was given the Women Development portfolio earlier.
Malati Rava Roy will handle Women and Child Development, Social Welfare, Department of Self Help Group and Self Employment, and Department of Programme Monitoring as a Minister of State (independent charge).
Of the 41 ministers in the West Bengal government, 19 have Cabinet rank, three are Ministers of State (MoS) with independent charge, and 19 others have MoS rank.
Among the cabinet ministers, Dipak Barman, who won from Falakata, has been allocated School Education, Department of Housing, and Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles.
Jagannath Chattopadhyay, who won from the Suri constituency, will handle the Higher Education and Technical Education Ministry, while the health portfolio has been given to Sharadwat Mukherjee, who won from Bidhannagar.
Tapas Roy will be incharge of the Industry, Commerce and Enterprises, Department of Public Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction and the Department of Non-Conventional and Renewable Energy sources.
Shankar Ghosh, who won from Siliguri, has been assigned Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism.
Manoj Kumar Oraon will look after the Forests and Department of Environment, while Arjun Singh has been allocated Labour and Transport. Gouri Sankar Ghosh has been given the Backward Classes Welfare Department and the Department of Mass Education Extension and Library Services
Arup Kumar Das, who has a Cabinet rank, has been given the Department of Irrigation and Waterways, while Ajay Kumar Poddar will handle the Department of Public Health Engineering and Public Works Department
Dudh Kumar Mondal, who won the Mayureswar seat by more than 21,000 votes, has been given the agriculture portfolio.
Among the 19 MoSes, Joyel Murmu will handle the Department of Tribal Development and the Department of Irrigation and Waterways. Anandamay Barman, who won from Mathabhanga-Naxalbari with over one lakh votes, has been given the Transport Department and Finance Department.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also Read: Has Bengal forgotten Left? After hat-trick of ducks, it can learn from Rahul Gandhi